


now that we have seen each other

by Mizzy



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Avengers Vol. 1 (1963), Doppelganger, Fluff, Identity Porn, Identity Reveal, M/M, Multiverse, Pining, Podfic Available, Portals, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 12:16:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20675258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mizzy/pseuds/Mizzy
Summary: Steve's crush on Iron Man seemed to him to be much more reasonable than his crush on Tony Stark. A meeting with some identical Avengers from another reality raises some important identity questions, though, and with their shattering revelations in tow, will Steve's heart survive this experience?





	now that we have seen each other

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thingexplainer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingexplainer/gifts).

> For [thingexplainer](https://thingexplainer.tumblr.com/). Happy birthday!  
Beta by [Synteis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/synteis), any mistakes that remain are my own.  


"You broke your identicard," Tony Stark repeated, like he wasn't sure he was hearing Steve right.

Steve adjusted his weight awkwardly and squinted at him apologetically. "I'm so sorry to bother you with this—"

"Oh, no, you're no bother," Tony said, immediately swiping the wrecked item in question out of Steve's hands and peering at it, "I was just so sure that these were indestructible." He swept a smile in Steve's direction that was almost distracted. It was probably just meant to be a polite smile to put his guest at ease. Steve probably wasn't supposed to find it so devastatingly charming. "It should teach me not to make such sweepingly confident statements about my own tech, but alas, I doubt I'll learn that lesson."

"I really am sorry," Steve said, wringing his hands uselessly. Apparently Tony meant to fix it right now; he pulled off his sleekly fitted black work jacket and threw it over the back of one of the chairs, rolled up his sleeves and started pulling tools out of a drawer. "I know how busy you are."

"No apologies necessary," Tony squinted at the mangled contents of the tech and nodded to himself, pulling out a cable from the large deck of buttons that spread in front of him nearly the width of the small lab and connecting it into the card. "It's not often I get such a strong, robust roadtest of my inventions. Honestly, you can't manufacture a field test as strenuous as an active Avenger's daily life."

"Well. I'm very appreciative of your help." Steve pressed his mouth together and hovered there awkwardly.

Tony pushed up his shirt sleeves almost unthinkingly while he worked, his clever long fingers moving nimbly to fix Steve's accident, and Steve was almost entranced by the slight movement of the muscles under his pleasingly tanned skin. So much so that Steve almost missed Tony asking him a question.

"Sorry," Steve said, and was he always going to be saying that today? "I didn't catch that."

"I asked how you broke it," Tony said. "Good research for any future models of this I'm gonna have to make."

"You said it was impossible to destroy, but… I managed it, and I'm—" Steve was sure that his blush was obvious, even with how much of his face his cowl obscured, "—embarrassed."

"There's nothing you can have done that I haven't done before," Tony snorted as he did something with what looked like a soldering iron, but this was Tony Stark, it could be anything. A tiny laser. A portable ennervator. A particle accelerator. Tony was as unreasonably intelligent as he was unreasonably attractive. "Trust me."

Steve eyeballed him warily. Tony was referencing his wide and active social life, but there was plenty as an Avenger that Steve had done that Tony couldn't possibly identify with. Although Tony got into plenty enough scrapes of his own that fully justified having someone like Iron Man as his permanent bodyguard, so maybe Tony was right.

Steve wondered where Iron Man was. Probably taking the moment to relax. Tony's lab seemed pretty secure. Thinking of Iron Man gave him the mental strength to admit the truth.

"Isortofdroppeditdownthetoilet," Steve said.

Tony frowned at that, actually lifting his attention from the ruined identicard to squint at Steve. There was no reasonable explanation for why Tony's frown was as pretty as his smile, too. It was unfair, somehow.

"Could you run that by me again, Cap?" Tony asked.

"Isortof," Steve started, but swallowed, and tried again. "I dropped it down the toilet."

"Oh," Tony said.

"And flushed," Steve added, dolefully.

Tony blinked and turned his gaze back to the mashed identicard. Maybe he was wondering whether Steve had washed it after retrieving it from the sewage system. "Well. Huh. I guess I _really_ shouldn't have called the last model impossible to break, then. Never mind." Tony sounded more cheerful. "_This_ version will be impossible to break."

Steve stared, trying to pretend he was watching the fix, not the way Tony's muscles continued to pleasingly flex as he worked. He didn't mean to say it, because he was planning on being perfectly nice and respectable and appreciative, but sometimes his mouth moved before his brain could command it to stop, and he blurted, "Are you sure about that?"

Tony barked out a laugh that settled Steve's initial wave of panic. He was glad Tony didn't seem to be insulted by the question. "Captain, I regularly—" Tony clicked something into the device, a tiny smile of success briefly flitting across his mouth, "—do six impossible things before breakfast." He spun in his chair, held up what looked somehow like an already perfectly fixed identicard, and grinned widely. It was a giddy sort of smile and it did things to Steve, the kind of sensation that made his toes curl.

"It's 4pm, Mr. Stark," Steve murmured, because if he focused on that pedantic detail, maybe Tony wouldn't notice he was distracted, "_hardly_ before breakfast."

Tony flashed him an inscrutable look, his eyes dark. "E_very_ time is before breakfast, if you think about it."

Maybe Steve had offended him after all. Steve swallowed and tried to double-down on his intention at the beginning—to be nice, respectful, appreciative. "I really am grateful for this, Mr. Stark," Steve said, looking at his now-fixed identicard with bright eyes. "And I'd really appreciate you not mentioning it to the other Avengers."

Tony stretched, getting up from his chair. "I'm sure we've all done things we'd rather other people didn't know about." The smile he flashed at Steve as he reached back for his suit jacket was a conspiratorial one. The wink he followed it up with would have caused Steve to stumble, had he not been standing still.

Steve was disappointed as the pleasing sight of Tony Stark's well-defined forearms disappeared into the dark material. It was a good thing that Tony had been distracted by the task and hadn’t noticed Steve perving on him. Steve's gaze dipped to the fixed identicard again. He’d worried he would need an entirely new one.

"I still don't know how I managed to flush it down the toilet without noticing," Steve sighed. It was better to focus on that dilemma rather than indulge in his ridiculous crush on Tony Stark. Tony was so far out of his league as to be basically living on another planet. It was normal for him to get crushes on men that were out of his league. It was safe. Jan had whispered once, when she was in a funk as she and Hank were going through a rough spot, that it was better to fixate on someone impossible than to risk your heart on someone who could actually return your feelings.

Steve had only really recently started to understand what she meant. It was why sometimes, mid-battle, during lulls in the fighting when they were waiting for the next wave of villainy, and Iron Man would tell him an anecdote of one of his copious solo adventures on Mr. Stark's behalf, that Steve would feel an antsy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

His attraction to Iron Man felt dangerous. It was dangerous. Steve tried his best to ignore those feelings simply because they didn't seem so impossible. There was a man under that clever armor. A man who knew what it was like to throw your body in the way of evil again and again. Maybe that man thought that Steve would be a good match for him. They would die for each other; was it so impossible to think they could live for each other?

"At least you realized it and found it in the Mansion's tanks before it disappeared out into the sewage," Tony said cheerfully, unaware that Steve's thoughts had strayed to Tony's heroic bodyguard again.

Steve nodded and admired the way Tony's suit highlighted his broad shoulders and narrow waist. Tony's money and brains made him unreachable, the kind of celebrity crush that Steve had always deemed safe. Perhaps it was okay for Steve to look and daydream at Tony. It was safer, because it would never happen, but maybe that was fine for now. Steve had responsibilities as an Avenger. Work to do to make the world a safer place. Romance right now would be a distraction.

"And it's just in time, how about that, huh?” Tony nodded at the way the identicard in Steve's hand suddenly lit up.

Steve connected the call and looked into his identicard screen. Wasp smiled out at him. "Cap, am I glad to see you," she beamed. "We've got a bit of a scuffle down on Fire Island. Some sort of otherworldly creatures running rampant. Hope you've got your shield, we're gonna need it."

Tony waved his hand to get Steve's attention. "I'll get Iron Man to give you a lift," Tony murmured.

"Iron Man and I will meet you there," Steve said. Wasp nodded and disconnected the call. Steve looked up from the identicard. "My apologies, Mr. Stark."

"Tony is fine," Tony said, waving a hand, already heading over to the communicator he used to contact them at the mansion. "Go. I'll get ol' Shell-Head to meet you by the front gates."

Steve nodded and headed for the steps of the lab. He paused at the bottom and nodded over at Tony. "Thanks again for fixing my identicard, Tony."

Tony flashed him another of those brilliant smiles. "You're welcome, Cap."

* * *

Steve was halfway across the Stark facilities when he realized he should have returned that favor and invited Tony to call him Steve.

It wasn't like Tony didn't already know who he was out of the uniform. They lived together, for goodness' sake, albeit mostly as ships who passed in the night. Sometimes those ships met in the kitchen at what Tony called night, but Steve had to gently insist was morning; Steve relished those distracting talks over coffee, when Steve was in his running gear, and Tony would be work-rumpled, a smear of grease on his forehead or clothing, and a sleepy attractive smile lingering on his face like a promise.

In the dim light of dawn creeping through the mansion kitchen window, sometimes Tony felt dangerously real.

Well, Steve would just have to amend that lack of manners later. He was almost at the gate when Iron Man hovered down, his boot jets and repulsors glowing.

Iron Man's modulator flattened all of his words into a digital rumble, but Steve thought he could still hear the semi-laugh in it when he called out, "Hey, somebody call for a cab?"

"I did," Steve called up, smiling when several of Tony's employees stopped in their tracks to openly stare, "but you'll do."

"Hilarious," Iron Man rumbled in Steve's ear as he swooped down.

Because Fire Island was a little distance away, Steve carefully climbed onto Iron Man's back and they shot away through the sky. Flying like this was one of Steve's favorite parts of this decade, even if it had meant learning how to deal with windburn on his cheeks. Steve was grateful that he had an excuse to look like he was permanently blushing, because it was a convenient disguise for the way Iron Man sometimes sideswiped his emotions unexpectedly.

From above, it was easy to get a good view of the chaos.

"There's some sort of portal open on the westernmost side," Iron Man called, helpfully adjusting his volume to compensate for the roar of the wind as they flew. "My scans say there are about twelve creatures on the island. The Avengers seem to be trying to herd them back into the portal."

"Drop me off by the furthest one," Steve called.

"Aye, aye, captain," Iron Man chirped.

The creatures seemed to be some sort of smooth jigsaw mash-up in red scales of a goat and a lion. They were spitting something red and gelatinous from their mouths that was traveling a fair distance; Steve just dodged it as he helped start to chase the creatures back toward the portal. The portal was red too. Maybe everything on the other side was red. Steve didn't want to find out.

"The thing they're spitting isn't toxic, it's just gross," Ms. Marvel yelled, as soon as she was in shouting distance; she was taking advantage of her powers to herd them from the air, carefully sending energy blasts to convince them to go in the direction she wanted.

Over in a different direction, Iron Man, Vision and Wasp were using the same method, Iron Man using his repulsor blasts, Vision his power rays and Wasp using her powerful stings. Beast seemed to be picking them up bodily in the middle and hurling them through. Falcon was flying around and dive-bombing them to convince them to move.

All the methods were successful, so why weren't they done already?

As if his question was obvious on his face, Ms. Marvel pointed up at a portal in the sky that was dropping more of them out as Steve watched.

Wasp dropped down, helping to encourage one of the creatures Steve was having trouble with to move in the right direction with some of her stings. "The Fantastic Four are on their way, they think they have a fix.”

"What does _on their way_ mean?" Steve asked.

"Enough that we're not going to get a break any time soon," Wasp sighed, zipping past Steve in a blur.

* * *

The Fantastic Four eventually turned up and did manage to close the portal. Mr. Fantastic was extremely profuse in his apologies, explaining that there had been another portal in Queens that dropped an ogre into Flushing Meadows Park that had been quite tricky to capture.

Covered in goo from the creatures, Steve just nodded. At least everything was cleared up with little danger. When Steve got up to head to the quinjet with the rest of the Avengers, Vision seemed to be the only one not affected by the goo, which made sense. Steve had a petty side and wondered if anyone would blame him for assigning Vision to quinjet clean-up, considering they were all dropping goo on the floor as they climbed in.

The Avengers weren't all living in the mansion at the moment, but they did all still have rooms there, so when the quinjet landed, they all headed for the elevator, ready to go straight for the showers, but when they exited the elevator, showering was the last thing on any of their minds.

They all halted in unison. The weird noise that assailed them as soon as the elevator doors opened was familiar, uncomfortable to the ear. It wasn't a loud noise to start with, but it stood out because the mansion was usually very quiet.

Steve recognized the noise, probably a moment too late. It was the same noise that had been the soundtrack of their last few hours, a murmur in the background every time Steve got close to one of the portals there. The noise grew louder, directly above them, and Steve didn't understand what that meant, but thankfully not everyone had that same issue; Iron Man responded more quickly, pushing Steve out of the way just in time as something thudded through the portal that appeared on the ceiling above them.

Seven somethings, as it turned out. Steve spared Iron Man one grateful look, before turning to see what they would be fighting this time, only to come face-to-face… with themselves.

Steve frowned at the sight, blinking like it was a hallucination he could dispel by closing his eyes. The sight remained the same. _His _Avengers were around the edges of the room, still splattered in that unfortunate red goo, and in the middle of the hall were, well, _them._

Iron Man. Ms. Marvel. Wasp. Beast. Falcon. Vision. And Captain America.

Identical, except for the lack of goo.

Steve wrenched himself to his feet, his shield already back in his hands. "Avengers assemble," he snarled, and was proud of how quickly his team was ready to defend against this band of intruders.

"Wait," Other Captain America held up a hand, "don't attack."

"We come in peace," Other Iron Man rumbled.

Steve was aware of his Avengers looking at him for guidance, touched by how quickly they all trusted him again after his most recent absence. "Explain," Steve said.

"There's a villain in our dimension called Hellstrom," Other Captain America said. "Son of Satan. We were getting close to stopping his nefarious schemes to destroy us, when he started opening portals everywhere as a distraction."

“We fell through,” Other Wasp said sadly.

“We’ve been falling ever since,” Other Beast grunted.

"Please say you have a Reed Richards in this dimension," Other Iron Man pleaded. "Or a Doctor Stephen Strange? Someone good with magic or portals? I can build a fix myself, but—"

"Wasp," Steve said, cautiously. "Call the Fantastic Four."

"Oh thank goodness," Other Wasp said.

"I _told_ you that the portals were all close to our own dimension's frequency," Other Vision said.

"That doesn't guarantee anything here's the same, you know that," Other Ms. Marvel said. "But I'm getting a good vibe from these Avengers."

"For what it's worth, my seventh sense is telling me the same," Ms. Marvel offered.

Steve nodded, the barest incline of his head. "Fine. Avengers, stand down. For now." He looked over at his double. "While we wait, would you like a refreshment? Something to eat while you wait?" Now he was a tiny, infinitesimal amount more at his ease, he noticed the way the Other Avengers seemed tired.

"That would be so good," Other Falcon breathed. "We've been bouncing around portals for nearly two days."

"All right," Steve said. "Beast, Ms. Marvel, Wasp when you've made that call, go get your showers. We'll go be good hosts for our guests."

"Good slightly-goopy hosts," Iron Man said, a note of cheerfulness still managing to slide into his modulated voice.

"I presume as this looks identical to our mansion that the kitchen is this way," Other Iron Man pointed in the right direction.

"Of course," Steve said. "Follow us."

The Other Avengers trooped after him, all of them smiling somewhat nervously. They might be as weirded out as Steve was, being so close to their copies, or maybe they were wondering whether Steve and his Avengers were trustworthy. Steve trusted Ms. Marvel's powers, though. And he trusted his team. Should these Avengers turn out to not be on the level, he was sure they would subdue them, especially with the Fantastic Four on their way.

The Other Avengers settled in easily, as if this was an identical copy of their mansion, pitching in to help pull items from the fridge when Falcon left a trail of red goop on the handle. Other Falcon even helped wipe up his counterpart's slime trail on the fridge door.

"My favorite," Falcon smiled, when Other Falcon tossed him a ham sandwich.

Steve was about to comment on how similar they were, when his counterpart handed Other Iron Man a cheese sandwich. Steve then changed his intention, getting ready to mention there were smoothies in the door and straws in the cutlery drawer. And then he ended up just standing there with his mouth hanging open.

Because _Other_ Iron Man didn't refuse the food and politely insist on a straw.

Other Iron Man lifted up his faceplate like it was no big deal.

_Other Iron Man was Tony Stark._

"Wow," Steve said.

"Oh," Iron Man added.

"What are you two making weird noises about?" Falcon asked, his mouth full of sandwich. Steve nodded at Other Iron Man.

Falcon followed Steve's gaze. "Woah," he said, eloquently.

Ms. Marvel sidled up alongside them, already re-dressed in a fresh clean copy of her uniform and toweling her hair with one hand. "Uh, why do you three look like Beast just beat you in the training suite again?"

"Well," Steve said, staring openly at an Iron Man casually sitting at their dining table with _Tony Stark's face,_ "it turns out that maybe we're not as identical a team as we thought we were."

* * *

Other Iron Man—_Other Tony Stark?_—didn't seem to notice he was being stared at until several bites of his sandwich.

Tony's doppelgänger was just as attractive as their Tony, Steve thought, feeling faint.

"That's so weird," Beast said, entering the kitchen.

"I know, right?" Falcon enthused.

At least they were all staring at Tony's face as he contentedly continued to sit in the Iron Man armor and eat his sandwich with his teammates, so it wasn't just Steve being a creeper. He just couldn't handle it. A reality where both his crushes were the same person, holy Hannah, it was unbearable. Steve was in danger of actually swooning at the concept, if he could even move right now.

"Iron Man," Steve said, softly, "is that—"

"Seems to be," Iron Man said. Steve couldn't even detect a hint of emotion in that voice.

"Guess in their universe you're out of a job," Beast said, wrapping a friendly furry arm around Iron Man's shoulders.

"Guess so," Iron Man said.

"Um," Other Tony Stark said, finally noticing all the staring, "what's going on?"

Other Captain America visibly bristled, realizing where all the staring was focused. "Do we have a problem here?" Other Captain America said. Steve frowned. Was that how his voice sounded, when he thought he was being threatening? It kind of sounded like he needed a lozenge.

"No problem," Steve said, too quickly; his own voice lurched upward. He coughed and forced himself to take a breath and calm down. "We were just fascinated by how different our universes actually are." He gestured at Other Iron Man like that explained everything.

Other Tony Stark looked confused and then his mouth opened slightly in a delighted smile. Other Tony Stark was just as attractive when he smiled too. "Oh, wow," Other Tony Stark said, straightening up. It was so weird, to see Iron Man walking around with Tony Stark's face and Tony Stark's voice. "I'm not Iron Man in your world? Huh."

"Iron Man's your bodyguard in our world," Wasp offered helpfully. Steve hadn't even noticed that she'd returned. She looked over at Other Tony Stark appreciatively. "Very handsome. That suits you, Tony."

"Thanks, Ja—Wasp," Other Tony Stark corrected, looking a little sheepish at the slip.

"Jan's fine, everyone knows that's my name here," Wasp dismissively waved a hand. Then she winced. "Unless that's not known in your universe—" she added, quickly.

"No, I'm just as badly disguised in our universe too," Other Wasp laughed. "I considered a mask, but honestly—"

"—deprive people of seeing all _this?_" Wasp finished, gesturing at herself and her face. Other Wasp grinned widely. "Exactly," both Wasps chimed at the same time.

Steve shook himself. The similarities were kind of crazy. Except for this one dissimilarity, of course.

"Bodyguard, huh?" Other Tony Stark said, stepping closer and sizing up Iron Man.

Iron Man was uncharacteristically quiet. Steve supposed that made sense. It must be weird knowing in another world the man he worked so hard to protect was the idiot throwing himself around in Iron Man's armor. Steve wondered what Iron Man's counterpart did in the Other Avengers' universe, if he wasn't busy being Iron Man. Maybe he'd be wandering around, without a mask on at all. Maybe Steve still knew him, except without the mask in the way. Or maybe Iron Man—the _real_ Iron Man—didn't exist at all in this Other universe. That thought was so sad.

"Ah, you made me think for a moment our universes might have diverged massively," Other Tony Stark said, "but I'm gonna guess...not so much. Hmm. Bet it’s the same frequency, too."

Steve squinted, wondering what he meant, but before he could open his mouth to ask, Other Tony Stark cocked his head, lifted a panel on his forearm and pressed something quickly in to the controls beneath—and Iron Man's own faceplate lifted up.

"God_dammit,_" Tony Stark—_their _Tony Stark—said exuberantly from beneath their Iron Man's open faceplate.

* * *

Tony looked angry for most of the rest of the Other Avengers' stay and honestly, Steve didn't blame him. This had been Tony's secret to tell, not one to be stolen by someone, even if that someone _was_ Tony Stark, one step to the side.

The Fantastic Four couldn't come soon enough. Sue's hair was still wet; the four of them had caught some goo when helping them close up the last portal too. Johnny's hair was dry, but Steve wasn't sure whether that was the Fantasticar's speed that would have dried it in the open air, or if Johnny used a hairdryer, or if Johnny's fire power meant drying off after a shower at all was unnecessary.

He was only letting himself get distracted by this decade's Human Torch because otherwise he thought about Tony again, and Steve was positive the admiration on his face would be too difficult to hide.

Tony was Iron Man. He was _incredible._ How was it even fair that two incredible people could be housed in one body? It didn't seem physically possible. But that was Tony Stark. He did six impossible things before breakfast. Although sometimes that was by insisting that it was perfectly reasonable to eat breakfast at 6pm.

Oh, gosh, had Steve ever said anything embarrassing about Iron Man to Tony's face, in their early morning coffee meetings? He hoped not. If he had, Tony was a gentleman; he wouldn't mention it.

Mr. Fantastic was delighted by the fact he could show off his portal tech to someone else. Other Tony Stark was easily following every word he said and Steve faintly recalled how easily Iron Man was the same with tricky technology and difficult science. Of course Iron Man understood it. Iron Man _was Tony Stark._

Eventually Mr. Fantastic created another swirling portal in their hallway and he beamed at it proudly, showing the Other Avengers how it worked. Steve tuned most of it out. Tony was listening intently; Steve trusted that he would pick up any of the important details and feed it back to Steve later.

"I can't guarantee that this won't just bounce you to another reality if your Hellstrom's causing portal mayhem at your own frequency," Mr. Fantastic was telling them, "but I've boosted the signal and this anchor frequency should at least get you close and guarantee you another _Fantastic Four_ universe. Another Reed with more time will be able to get you home."

"We appreciate it," Other Ms. Marvel said, shaking Mr. Fantastic's hand thoroughly. She didn't look disturbed when Mr. Fantastic got distracted and his arm went floppy, turning the handshake into a flail of extra limb, so clearly she was used to Mr. Fantastic's stretching powers when she was from.

A reality where Iron Man was Tony Stark was Iron Man.

A reality very close to their own.

Steve fidgeted, the fact settling in his stomach uncomfortably. His crush on Tony was stratospheric. His crush on Iron Man was supposed to be _possible._ Finding out one was the other was a gut punch. To be honest, Steve was almost broken-hearted.

He'd get over it. Maybe. The knowledge that there were other versions of themselves out there in the multiverse was probably going to take up a lot of brain space for a while. After that, time would have to do.

The portal was pretty but the Other Avengers looked a little nervous at stepping through. Steve supposed he understood that, if the portal wasn't a guaranteed homecoming. Like his team, they all seemed to be looking up to Other Captain America for leadership. Steve didn't know whether to be glad or not that some things were a constant.

Other Tony Stark was looking across at Other Captain America too. Other Tony Stark looked at Other Captain America like he was something special, something important. Steve felt uneasy, like he was intruding somehow. Like _they_ were the copies intruding someone else's home reality.

"We might not be going home," Other Tony Stark sighed, looking at Other Captain America with a worried expression, his eyes tracking Other Captain America's face like he was a page full of equations.

"But we'll be fine," Other Captain America said firmly.

Other Tony Stark lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "How can you know that?"

"Because we'll be together," Other Captain America said.

Steve almost swallowed his tongue, because at those words, Other Tony Stark leaned in and Other Captain America kissed him.

The kiss didn't stop, either. It continued, soft and obviously loving, the two leaning in like matching bookends. This wasn't a first kiss. This was a _welcome home_ kiss, a _you are mine_ kiss. A _you were the piece missing from me all along, I'm so glad you're mine_ kiss.

Steve's mouth was dry. Other Tony and Other Steve were together. Romantically together. Steve felt like the floor had disappeared and he thought about checking to see if a portal had snagged it too, but he couldn't tear his gaze away. He only just about managed to swallow back the soft noise that wanted to crawl out of his throat at the sight.

The kiss deepened for a moment and Steve had to look away. He couldn't keep watching that. It was already seared into his memory.

Looking away meant he saw Wasp elbow Tony, looking up at him with a teasing expression. "Well, if that _other_ thing with your identity was true, then..."

Tony's mouth quirked to one side, his mustache twitching. "Don't get any ideas, van Dyne," he warned, his voice low.

Hearing that was like being punched in the gut.

Of course. Of _course_ Tony would want it to be known he would never be like that. He would never look at Steve that way. Steve's _almost_ broken-hearted status slipped away, the _almost_ part of the equation quietly dying. He was broken-hearted.

In his admiration of Iron Man, Steve thought he'd set his heart on someone possible. He was a fool. Iron Man had always been nothing but a thought too, a daydream. An impossibility. He should have been relegated to the impossible from the beginning. It was Steve's own fault that Tony had just been so easily able to snap Steve's heart in two, with six easy words.

Steve swallowed, meaning to turn and watch the Other Avengers disappear into their swirling blue portal, but instead he was caught by something else, Tony's blue eyes, suddenly locked on him.

"You, on the other hand," Tony said. The Iron Man armor framed his face, prettier than any picture. "_You_ can get ideas."

Steve's breath caught in his throat. Tony was an impossible crush. Iron Man was an impossible crush. But Tony and Iron Man could do six impossible things before breakfast, and—Steve glanced up at the clock briefly—_every_ time really was before breakfast, if you thought about it.

Steve's smile of realization was slow as Tony slipped his gauntlet into Steve's glove. There was metal and leather in the way, but Steve fancied he could feel the heat of their skin touching anyway. He missed the sight of the Other Avengers stepping through their portal and disappearing. He was busy looking at a far more beautiful sight.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] now that we have seen each other](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22178500) by [hopelesse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopelesse/pseuds/hopelesse)


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